Pens Sweep Canes with 4-1 Victory

Pens Sweep Canes with 4-1 Victory

The Pittsburgh Penguins as they have shown throughout this series, were just too much for the Carolina Hurricanes. The Pens earned a return trip to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they will face either the Detroit Red Wings or the Chicago Blackhawks, with another very good performance in Raleigh, NC tonight. The Pens are a much better team defensively this year than they were last season and will be very difficult to beat in the Final.

The game started out well for Carolina again as it did in Game 3, when Eric Staal scored his first goal of the series on a wraparound. Staal took the puck from behind the goal line, skated behind Fleury and stuffed the puck just inside the left post of Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury otherwise was sensational making 30 saves after Staal scored. Fleury did stop Samsonov on a nice chance in front on a power play. After the game settled down, Pittsburgh took over. Ruslan Fedotenko took a hard pass from Phillpe Boucher just to the right of Cam Ward and redirected it past Ward to make it 1-1. This play took tremendous skill for Fedotenko to direct it past Ward where he basically cut on dime to redirect the shot in. Ward then made what appeared to be a blunder when he missed a blocked shot from Max Talbot that floated over his glove and into the net to make it 2-1 Penguins. Ward said that “I lost it for a moment, bad break fluke goal”. By watching this first period the Pens did seem poised to win this game. They outshot the Canes 9-5 in the first period.

The Canes had a lot more step in their game in the second period. Every shot they had, Fleury had an answer. Eric Staal made a nice rush on a penalty kill where he got around a defender, but Fleury stopped his backhander. Pittsburgh stretched their lead to 3-1 when Antoine Babchuck, who was a healthy scratch for the first 3 games of this series, turned the puck over at his blue line to Sidney Crosby. Crosby then skated down the left wing and fed a perfect pass to the wily veteran Bill Guerin who then shot it past Ward into a partially empty net. Crosby has just been sensational this series and does have 14 goals and 14 assists in 17 games so far in this playoff season. The Canes outshot Pittsburgh 16-10 in the second period but the wonderful work of Fleury kept the game at 3-1.

In the third period the Canes came out with a purpose. Fleury was brilliant in stopping Segei Samsonov on a nice tip just 36 seconds into the third period. Then not even 20 seconds later, Fleury again stopped a nice tip in front by Ray Whitney. Fleury then got a lot of help from Pittsburgh with how good defensively they played the rest of the game. Matt Cullen had another good chance when he cut through the defense but Fleury stopped him with his blocker when he followed Cullen to his right and then sprawled and kept the game at 3-1. Pittsburgh did not attack as much in the 3rd period but then played a wonderful defensive system that Dan Byslma had put in after taking over the coaching duties on February 15, 2009. Pittsburgh finished with an 18-3-4 record under him and has won now 12 games and only lost 5. This Penguins team looks unbeatable right now. To finish the game after Cam Ward was pulled, Craig Adams, the former Hurricane player, deposited the puck into an empty net to make it 4-1.

The Penguins impressed my by showing that they can adapt to any style of game you play. The can win a more defensive oriented type game like tonight or win a shootout like Game 2 was 7-4. Led by Malkin, Crosby, and some of the foot soldiers, Guerin, Rob Scuderi, Kris Letang and Jordan Staal, this team is well rounded and to me looks like they can beat anybody including Detroit. If Fleury plays as well as he did tonight and in Game 1, he will keep Pittsburgh in every game and will possibly lead this team to the Stanley Cup Finals.

To sum up the Hurricanes season, Paul Maurice said it best. “If you looked at the tank of some of our players, you would see the gage on the Empty part.” The exciting and grueling series that they played vs both the NJ Devils and Boston Bruins, seemed to take a lot out of this team. I am very proud of the way this team responded to the hiring of Paul Maurice in December. They were about 21-20-3 when he was hired and they finished with 45-30-8. I was one that thought this was a bad hiring. I was DEAD WRONG. This team showed tremendous character, grit and determination in this playoff season. They also gave me a memorable game that I saw live in Boston for Game 7 when most experts though they had little chance to win on the road. They got the job done and it was very satisfying for me to see it live, thanks to my cool uncle from Chicago. Thank you Canes for a nice postseason run. I hope you add the necessary talent to hopefully go a bit farther next season. Also congratulations to the Penguins, they earned their way by easily disposing of the Canes. Good luck in the next series, which I think has all the makings of a classic, if they play Detroit. I do believe that is what will happen but I hope Chicago makes it very hard on them and pushes them a bit harder tonight as well.